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From the High Desert

A Cultural History of Art Bell

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Thumbnail for February 17, 2000: Dead Spirits and Bizarre Dreams - Katia Romanoff, Lauri Quinn Loewenberg, & Lawrence Notts

February 17, 2000: Dead Spirits and Bizarre Dreams - Katia Romanoff, Lauri Quinn Loewenberg, & Lawrence Notts

Feb 17, 2000
2h 43m
Katia RomanoffLauri Quinn LoewenbergLawrence Notts
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Art Bell opens with a chilling live account from Lawrence Notts in West Virginia, who describes three years of relentless paranormal activity in his home. Lawrence explains that the disturbances began the week he signed a contract to sell timber from inherited land containing Native American burial grounds. Entities grab his arms, gouge his eyes, shake his bed, and have driven away his mother, his girlfriend, and his daughters. His friend Sonny Nestor joins to corroborate the events, describing videotape evidence and his own unsettling encounters.

Lawrence details his survival tactics, including strobe lights, high-powered spotlights, and a guard dog that was physically thrown down a hallway by an unseen force. A compass needle tracks the entities as they move through the room, and static electricity causes his hair to stand on end in their direction. An exorcism removed one spirit, but two more arrived violently in its place.

Dr. Katia Romanoff, holding a PhD in parapsychology, joins later and suggests the spirits are disturbed Native Americans with unfinished business. She recommends Lawrence seek a Native American shaman to serve as a cultural bridge. Art then discusses his own vivid past-life dreams with Katia and dream analyst Lauri Quinn Loewenberg.

Key Moments

  1. Selling timber from an Indian grave: West Virginia caller Lawrence Notts says the haunting started one week after he sold timber off inherited land that contained an Indian grave, and the entity attacked his mother, girlfriend and daughters in turn until they all left.

  2. Invisible hand grabs his wrist: Lawrence describes lying awake when an unseen hand gripped his left wrist; after testing with his right arm, the entity grabbed that one too, then began answering yes/no questions by hitting his hand.

  3. Exorcism replaced one entity with two: After a woman performed an exorcism that drove out the original spirit nicknamed Taz, Lawrence says two more entities arrived violently, slamming doors, shaking mirrors and biting at him like a pack of dogs.

  4. Compass tracks the entity: Lawrence reports a magnetic compass needle abandoned north and tracked the entity around his bedroom while his hair stood on end as the presence approached.

  5. Art Bell's past-life dreams: Art tells dream researchers Katia Romanoff and Lauri Loewenberg he has begun dreaming as if dropped into another person's life entirely, with names, hometowns and high-school lockers he has never seen, and is considering flying to verify the places.